The present invention relates to a built-in refrigerator comprising a carcass, in the lower rear area of which a machine compartment is formed. Since, if the carcass is incorporated into a cabinet niche, this machine compartment is countersunk deep into the niche, it is problematical to ensure adequate cooling of the units accommodated in the machine compartment by exchanging air with the environment.
One conventional approach to solving this problem is to embody a flue between a rear wall of the carcass and a rear wall of the cabinet niche, in which flue heated air can rise in the machine compartment, as a result of which cooling air is fed from below into the machine compartment. Such a solution is unsatisfactory since it takes up considerable space in the machine compartment such that the proportion of useable cooling chamber inside the carcass drops marginally by comparison with the volume of the cabinet niche.
DE 199 33 603A1 discloses the provision of a ventilator for forcedly ventilating the machine compartment. As a result, a flue for discharging the warm air is superfluous. A base region of the cabinet receiving the refrigerator, which is separated from the built-in niche by means of a base plate, is subdivided by a longitudinal wall into two flow channels, which extend between a front side of the cabinet and openings functioning as an inlet or, as the case may be, outlet opening for the machine compartment, said openings being cut into the base plate. The two openings and the separating wall require the cabinet to be extensively adjusted to the refrigerator to be built-in, so that aside from the all the purchasing costs of the refrigerator, the consumer is also subjected to labor costs for the installation thereof which are not yet negligible.